The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-03-15

my hotel in Leadville and informed |
that the Aspen stage coach was
waiting for me. 1t was bitter cold |
and showing so densely that the
driver had to pilot me TO the coach.
/ had on a heavy, double-fold velvet
dress, seal-skin sacque, q buffalo
robe pinned over my shoulders, my
head covered by fur cap, and my
face enveloped in shawl, allowing
an aperture for my eyes. Despite
all these projections was fright
fully cold. The coach was drawn
by six horses and was on wheels.
We were preceded by the Granite
coach, which was on runners. The
road over Elk Mountain is a natural
one that will admit of but single
coach passing.
"At the top of the mountain the
Granite coach halted in station
blasted out of the rock and allowed
us to 60 ahead, and the descent
began. The road at this point in
clines at an angle of 45o. The
driver put on his lock-chain to the
wheels, thus virtually converting
them into runners. The vehicle,
despite these precautions and by its
own weight, went down at fright
full pace. We could barely keep
our seats. We balanced ourselves
as best we could. Running up from
the truck and through the box of
the coach was perpendicular bar
of steel called the king-pin. l clung
to this and managed to keep myself
right side up. Down the narrow
path in the side of the mountain we
went with the horses in mad gallop
to keep the coach from running them
down. We were rounding Indepen-
dence Pass when suddenly the driver
cried:-
"'Jump, jump for your -
"He never finished the sentence.
He had been holding the coach as
near the embankment as the narrow
pass would permit. Ahead of him
he saw heavy bowlder topple and
fall down the mountain side into
the path. This caused him to make
the cry of warning. The obstruc-
tion was only twenty yards ahead of
him, and it was beyond human
| power to stop the coach. / saw the
driver leap. Inside we all held on
to the king-pin. Down we went,
and in another instant the forward
wheels struck the rock. The hind
part of the coach was thrown for
ward and outward, and the king
pin snapped like q reed. The box,
with all in it, went over the preci-
pice on its side, and through the
window l fell out. Less fortunate
than myself, the coach and my
fellow-tourists lodged in crevice
in the side of the precipice some
one hundred and eighty feet below
the road. l was thrown out with
such force that l cleared this crag
and kept ON and down the full 400
feet to the bed of the canyon and
into bank of snow, cutting my
way into it as if it were water, head
first. The Granite coach to the
rear of us pulled into q notch in the
rocks, and the driver and some pro-
spectors got out and began to climb
down to where l had lodged. Armed
with shovels, they began to dig me
out, and, curious to relate, the one
flesh wound received was from the
blade of Il shovel, which plowed up
furrow in my ankle when they
reached me. was finally dug out,
unconscious, and to all appearances
dead. Restoratives were admin
istered, and l was taken up and
carried to the dollhouse at the head
of the cliff. Here my hands and
limbs were rubbed and my face
slapped until my cheeks were raw.
But all to no avail. l was black in
the face, and there was no audible
or visible respiration. ] was left in
the care of the toll-keeper and the
Granite coach passengers, while the
two drivers started for Aspen, thir-
teen miles distant, to summon a
physician. One of the party re-
turned at midnight with a doctor.
In the meantime had revived and
had, in company with the toll
keeper, gone down in a sleigh to
the dinner station, three miles
below, and was administering to the
wounded and dying. All of the
rest had sustained frightful injuries
In their fall of 1870, while 1, falling
over twice the distance, came Out
of the disaster with no other inju.
ries than bruise inflicted by q
shovel, ,"-TS, +, Bulletin.